Currently, an increasing amount of commerce involves the home delivery of merchandise. In particular, the advent of catalogs and the Internet as low cost marketing and distribution channels for goods and services have greatly increased the amount of commerce involving the home delivery of goods. Companies involved in delivering goods to consumers, however, have experienced difficulty in meeting consumers' price, service, security, privacy, selection, and information expectations. One cause of this difficulty is the limitations imposed on delivery service by current delivery and collection units or mailboxes.
Presently, the typical collection unit is a small box located on the curb in front of a consumer's house. This box provides adequate storage for small pieces of mail, but cannot accommodate larger packages. Further, other delivery services besides the United States Postal Service (USPS), cannot utilize these mailboxes. This often necessitates the use of a more expensive form of delivery, which in turn increases the delivery costs to the consumer.
In addition, the limitations imposed by typical collection units often interfere with consumers' desire for consistent delivery service. Because many packages cannot fit in typical mail collection units, these packages usually require personal delivery. If a consumer is not home to receive a package, however, the package is often handled inconsistently. In some cases, the consumer may receive a notice of attempted delivery. In other cases, the merchandise may be placed beside the front door. In still other cases, the merchandise is left with a neighbor. This inconsistent approach often leads to consumer dissatisfaction.
These same problems also exist with respect to consumers' desire for security and privacy. When packages are left at their front door or with neighbors, consumers are often concerned about theft and damage to their goods. Consumers also tend to dislike the loss of privacy associated with having their packages left with their neighbors. Moreover, consumers are often concerned about the signal that packages left in front of their homes send to home burglars. Additionally, typical collection units provide no way of preventing access to even those pieces of mail that fit in the collection unit.
In addition, consumers often want the ability to choose when and where their direct purchases will be received. However, as stated above, these deliveries often require that the consumer be home. This is not often practical for many consumers. This prevents the delivery of many items, such as perishables.
Finally, consumers, merchants, and delivery service providers expect that delivery information will be captured and made available between all parties from the point at which an order is made to the time it is delivered. The currently available collection units, however, are not currently used to transmit delivery information. With the exception of the outgoing mail flag found on some collection units, most collection units are not able to receive or transmit any information regarding what items are in the collection unit, when an item was placed in the collection unit, or who placed the items in the collection unit.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a collection unit that solves some or all of the problems associated with currently available systems.